The final home meet of the season ended with the Oregon Ducks (3-1) taking care of business at Matthew Knight Arena as they took on the Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders (3-2). In a rematch of the 2024 NCATA quarterfinals, which the Ducks also won, Oregon continued its domination against the Crusaders.
Acrobatics and tumbling meets are composed of six events - compulsory, acro, pyramid, toss, tumbling and the team routine — each with a varying number of heats. Every heat has a maximum of 10 points up for grabs, except the team routine, which has a maximum of 110 points up for grabs. The most a team could score in a single meet is 300 points.
The event begins with the compulsory event, where teams compete in four heats –- acro, pyramid, toss and tumbling — showcasing the same required set of skills with a predetermined start value of 10.00 points.
While there weren’t any wobbles this week, both teams made mistakes. The Crusaders and the Ducks didn’t break above 9.00 points in the tumbling heat. The Crusaders struggled, putting up their second lowest score of the season in the event. The Ducks also put up their second lowest score of the season. Oregon got off to an early lead over Mary Hardin-Baylor, 37.300 to 36.250.
The second event of the night is the acro event, where teams compete in three heats made up of five, six, and seven components respectively.
The event started strong in the five element heat for both teams. The Crusaders put up their highest score in the event this season, scoring a 9.900. The Ducks had their freshmen phenoms Cassidy Cu and Angelica Martin, the NCATA Freshman of the Week, pulling off their impressive skill once again, tying their season high with a 9.850. The Ducks pulled away even further in the acro event, scoring 29.000 to the Crusaders 28.550, and extended their event lead to 66.300 to 64.800.
The third event is the pyramid event, where teams compete in three heats — inversion, synchronized, and open — with the goal of creating a pyramid.
Mary Hardin-Baylor failed to hold a skill for the required amount of time in the inversion heat, but it didn’t affect its score too much, putting up a season best 9.600 in the heat. The Ducks won the event 29.350 to 29.000, and led heading into halftime 95.650 to 93.800.
After a fifteen-minute halftime, the meet moves onto the toss event, where teams toss one athlete into the air after forming a base. The event consists of three heats — 450 salto, synchronized and open.
In the open heat, the Crusaders had a wonky toss and needed to correct their footing while Jenna Hall was in the air, leading to a score of 9.150 in the heat.
Oregon continued its dominance, putting up a respectable 28.250 to 26.750 in the event totals. The Ducks extended their lead to 123.900 to 120.550, with two events left.
The fifth event of the night is the tumbling event. Teams compete in six heats — three synchronized based and three individual based tumbling passes.
Mary Hardin-Baylor struggled to overcome the start value differential, facing a nearly six point disadvantage heading into the event. The trio pass did the Crusaders no favor, with synchronization completely off, leading to a score of 8.150. Oregon also struggled in the trio pass heat, with underrotation issues, leading to a season low in the heat of a score of 8.500.
The start value differential was too much for the Crusaders to overcome in this event, with the Ducks taking the event 56.750 to 51.075.
Oregon went into the final event with an advantage of 180.650 to 171.625 over Mary Hardin-Baylor.
The final event of the night is the team routine event. Teams compete in a two-minute and forty-five-second routine showcasing all of the skills from the previous five events, in a routine set to music.
Mary Hardin-Baylor wrapped up its night with a solid performance, but filled with minor mistakes, which led to the Crusaders scoring an 84.380.
Oregon capped up its showing with a dominant performance, scoring a 94.530 in the team routine.
Oregon put on one of its best all-around performances this season, winning the meet 275.180 to 256.005, capitalizing on the home stand to start the season.
The Ducks next face off against Quinnipiac on Mar. 23 in Hamden, Connecticut. They’ll be on the road for the remainder of the season, where they hope to continue their winning ways and challenge the top teams to contend for their first national championship since 2014.